After U.S. House votes down resolution recognizing Golan Heights as Israeli, legislators lay out plan to boost U.S. support for Israeli sovereignty over the territory • Plan includes future document calling Israeli withdrawal from the Golan “unrealistic.”

By Ariel Kahana, ISRAEL HAYOM

Israelis visit the Golan Heights following Israeli strikes on targets in Syria Photo: Eyal Margolin / JINI

An American plan to bring the U.S. closer to recognizing the Golan Heights was laid out for Israeli and American officials in Washington last week.

The six-point plan proposed by a group of American legislators and spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calls to implement trade agreements between the U.S. and Israel on the Golan Heights and formulate a letter “recognizing the changes that have taken place on the ground,” similar to a document that former President George W. Bush presented to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prior to the 2005 disengagement,  acknowledging the existence of large Israeli settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria and saying it would be “unrealistic” to expect Israel to fully withdraw.
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A national conversion authority would be responsible for all conversions in Israel.

BY HERB KEINON, JPOST

Former Justice Minister Moshe Nissim’s recommendations to solve the conversion conundrum that will be released on Sunday includes a recommendation to recognize all conversions performed abroad in recognized Jewish communities, but only to accept ones in Israel performed under the auspices of a national conversion authority.

A senior official familiar with the matter said that Nisim’s report presents non-binding recommendations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his staff will review.

According to the official, the proposed bill would guarantee by law for the first time the rights of converts coming from abroad. Under the bill, conversions performed abroad in recognized Jewish communities would continue to be officially recognized by the state for the purposes of the Law of Return.
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BBC

Protests in Jordan against tax rises and austerity measures – the biggest demonstrations in years – continued for a third consecutive night.

Police fired tear gas and blocked roads in the capital Amman to stop protesters getting close to the cabinet office.

The protesters say a new tax bill backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will hurt the poor and middle class.

King Abdullah has called for compromise from all sides.
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DEBKA

Gaza Palestinians violated their own ceasefire Saturday night, June 2, after just three days, making naught of Israel’s claim of deterrence.

For the latest round in their three-month offensive, the Palestinians Saturday night switched to a more frugal method: instead of letting dozens of single rockets loose across a wide swathe of southern Israel, they launched small volleys at their unfortunate neighbors. They calculated they could traumatize Israel unendurably no less than they did by last week’s massive rocket barrage, while economizing on rockets and laying in stocks for the long haul. And so on Saturday night, twin-rocket salvos hit Sderot, the Eshkol district, the Hof Ashkelon council and Shear Hanegev, sparking loud red warning sirens across the region up to Lachish. Iron Dome downed four.

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Trump supporters defend appointment of Fred Fleitz to National Security Council post

By Dion Nissenbaum, WSJ

National security adviser John Bolton last month. Critics say Mr. Bolton’s appointment of Fred Fleitz as his deputy might indicate that the national security adviser is moving toward a more confrontational approach to Islam. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON—Jewish and Muslim groups are objecting to the appointment of a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst to a top White House post because of his controversial views of Islam.

The Anti-Defamation League, Council on American-Islamic Relations and other groups said Fred Fleitz shouldn’t serve as chief of staff to national security adviser John Bolton because he has advanced what they call Islamophobic views.

As a conservative analyst, Mr. Fleitz has called for the U.S. to formally declare war on a broadly defined Global Jihad Movement; suggested that most mosques in America are incubators for subversion or violence; and denounced some interfaith dialogue efforts in America as a move by “stealth jihadists” to undermine the country’s democratic values.
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Amid reports that Iranian troops and Hezbollah fighters are preparing to leave southern Syria, Russian president indicates he now wants Iranian forces out of Syria entirely • Given choice between Moscow and Tehran, Assad chose Russia, Syrian official says.

By Daniel Siryoti, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Russian President Vladimir Putin  Archives: AP

The Kremlin has given Israel a green light to launch attacks in Syria, as long as they do not target Syrian President Bashar Assad’s assets, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported Friday.

According to the report, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu assured Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman during their meeting in Moscow on Thursday of Russia’s approval for Israeli strikes.

The two defense ministers discussed a de-escalation zone in southern Syria, the Russian news agency TASS reported.
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We must carefully review the advantages and disadvantages of leaving or staying, especially now that the turmoil in the region is likely to intensify rather than subside.

BY ALON BEN-MEIR, JPOST

A US soldier guards a convoy with anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk in it last year.. (photo credit: REUTERS)

In early April, President Donald Trump said the US should withdraw its military forces from Syria. Secretary of Defense James Mattis seems to have persuaded Trump to postpone this plan for at least six months, citing strategic necessity. I fully agree.

Beyond that, however, US forces must not only remain in Syria, but be further augmented to make the US a credible player in shaping a permanent solution to the war that ravaged that country, ensuring the security of our allies, and stabilizing the region.

We must carefully review the advantages and disadvantages of leaving or staying, especially now that the turmoil in the region is likely to intensify rather than subside in the wake of the US withdrawal from the Iran deal. The reasons for staying and further boosting US forces in Syria are manifold.
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CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY May 31, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The discredited, radical left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Sharia-supremacist Muslim Brotherhood and their echo chamber in the leftist media are denouncing the appointment by President Trump’s new National Security Advisor, John Bolton, of a highly accomplished and widely respected national security practitioner as the National Security Council’s Chief of Staff and Executive Secretary.  The real reason for their frenzied complaints about the appointment of career intelligence professional Fred Fleitz should be obvious: This “Red-Green axis” is unhinged by Mr. Trump and is determined to do whatever it can to prevent his success.

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By Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D.

Now that the intricacies of decertification have been explored by a gaggle of pundits, politicians and professors, it is necessary to probe the implications of what had led to President Trump having issued this determination.

When doing so, it is vital to ignore those who reveal their biases when conveying ignorance of basic data, such as the false claim that there is a signed document or the unfounded assertion that there is no “Plan B” afoot; furthermore, those who are dismissive of the revelations by Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming he conveyed “nothing new” will find it impossible to cite when this damning information had previously been recognized.

The potential illegality of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was first explored in the American Thinker three years ago, sustained in The Hill following its release, and morphed into efforts to prompt the House to sue against its implementation that persisted into 2016 per the Jerusalem Post.
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Remembering the movement to exterminate the Jews of the Middle East.By Edwin Black, FPM

When International Farhud Day was proclaimed at a conference convened at the United Nations headquarters on June 1, 2015, its proponents wanted to achieve more than merely establish a commemoration of the ghastly 1941 Arab-Nazi pogrom in Baghdad that killed and injured hundreds of Iraqi Jews. Farhud means violent dispossession. The Farhud but the first bloody step along the tormented path to the ultimate expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from across the Arab world. That systematic expulsion ended centuries of Jewish existence and stature in those lands.
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Over 3,000 Yazidi women and girls remain enslaved throughout the Middle East.

BY RACHEL AVRAHAM, JPOST

Although headlines across the globe are focused on Iran’s growing influence in Syria, the aftermath of the US relocating its embassy to Jerusalem and the escalation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it is very important that we as Jews and Israelis not lose sight of the fact that in our region, there is an ancient faith that, according to the Yazidi tradition, dates back to before Noah’s Ark, and which urgently needs our support at this critical hour.

The Yazidis have experienced 74 genocides throughout their history, including the recent one implemented by Islamic State (ISIS), and despite the great gains made by the international coalition against ISIS, the Yazidis are still in a horrible situation.
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Former White House Communications director: You can’t have a two-state solution when one of those states supports terror.

By Eliran Aharon, INN

Former White House Communications director Anthony Scaramucci spoke on Thursday night at the Yeshivat Hesder Sderot Anniversary Gala Dinner in Manhattan.

“My first time in Israel was actually in 1985. I was 21 years old and I crossed into Israel” from Egypt, he recalled.

“When we crossed over into what is now Gaza, you went from one culture, where the water wasn’t clean, into a totally different culture, where you could drink right from the water fountain right then and there. You could see in 1985 the wonderful transformation of what was taking place in Israel.”
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5 US officials claim president mulling plan to place US J’lem consulate under ambassador’s control, giving him authority over ties with PA.

By David Rosenberg, INN

Less than a month after the US embassy in Israel was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, President Donald Trump is weighing another change to the US diplomatic mission in Israel.

According to a report by the Associated Press early Friday morning, President Trump is considering a request by the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman that the Jerusalem embassy be given authority over America’s other mission in Jerusalem – the Jerusalem consulate.
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By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM

Israel hits back hard while Hamas recognizes its limitations.

By Ari Liberman, FPM

It began with an attempt by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to plant an improvised explosive device on the security fence separating Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, and ended with a near full-scale conflagration on a scale not seen since the summer of 2014. Tensions for the time being have tapered off but the recent fighting demonstrates why the Israeli Army (IDF) maintains a constant state of readiness along its volatile borders.
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A move that would send a clear message to Iran.

By Ari Liberman, FPM

Last week, House Foreign Affairs Committee Member, Congressman Ron DeSantis (R.,-Fla.), proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act recognizing the Golan Heights as an integral part of Israel thereby validating Israel’s 1981 annexation of the territory. Though non-binding, the declarative resolution, which would have likely passed if brought to the House floor for a full vote, would have sent a strong message to the world, but chiefly Israel’s enemies, that after eight years of relentless hostility from the previous American administration, the US-Israel alliance is back on track and stronger than ever.
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